Tom Welling Shares Unrevealed Alternate Ending for ‘Smallville’

Before the Arrowverse and Marvel series, there was Smallville. This Superman show was a big hit on television, and even though the idea of a shared universe was not common at the time, fans loved superheroes, making Smallville a beloved series that many still enjoy talking about today.

Smallville is a great example of how to create a superhero show, which is why, even 13 years after it ended, fans remain interested in it and the actors who starred in it.

Tom Welling, who played Clark Kent/Superman, led the series, and in a recent interview, he shared some intriguing details about an alternate ending for Smallville that fans will definitely find interesting!

Smallville premiered on October 16, 2001, and ran for 11 seasons, concluding on May 13, 2011, with a total of 217 episodes—an impressive feat by today’s standards. While you might think that a long-running show like this would have poor quality, Smallville was actually one of the best and most popular series of its time.

The show helped set the stage for future superhero programs and continues to be celebrated for that. Tom Welling, who starred in the series, initially hesitated to audition for the role but changed his mind after reading the pilot, leading to his iconic performance.

Now, 13 years later, Welling still reflects on his time in the series, and during a recent interview at Comic Con Stockholm, he shared that there was originally an alternative ending to the show that may surprise fans.

[In] one of the final [scenes,] Clark opens his shirt and finally leaps off the building. That was written [in] a completely different way. They had written where Clark sees the suit, then cut to him, pulling it on and putting the boots on. Do you guys remember Kiefer Sutherland’s 24?

That show just ended, and one of the things they did in that show, it’s a satellite image from space, and he’s talking to [the] satellite imaging, knowing that Chloe, who he works with, is watching, and he’s saying goodbye. He’s saying, ‘I can’t stay, but I gotta go’ and I remember the takeaway from that to me was here’s a guy who’s gonna go out there, is gonna fight the good fight. We can’t go with him, but it allows our imagination to believe he’s still out there.

I took that and when we were trying to figure it out in the series, I referenced that the idea that this character is gonna go out there, he’s gonna be out there. We can’t go with it. And that’s how that all came about. There was a bit of a discussion and limitation on what shots we were going to use, it was me, and Greg Beeman, who directed the episode.

But the idea was I was going to force them on a crane shot to come into gear. After that, the show was over, and because it was a crane shot, and no, I wouldn’t allow them to shoot any other angles of it, because that’s what I wanted that and then to go on. So the wardrobe department went, ‘So we’re only going to see this? Okay.’

So they made me a crop top with no sleeves. They didn’t want to pay for the whole suit, and I didn’t mind, I didn’t want to wear a suit! [laughs] So when I go like this [mimics the shirt rip going further,] if I’ve gone any further, you’d have see my belly button.

Source: ScreenRant

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